I still remember the day I bought my first Mountain Bike. I didn’t knew any cyclist in Pune. I didn’t know any shop. I fumbled upon Firefox’s website and the bike Tempest was in my budget; being from a small town anything costly seemed like a brat’s choice to me. But when I saw Firefox Cyclone displayed outside the store I got lusty and rode her back home. I kept commuting to office month after month and soon I started exploring the Sahyadri mountains.
Today(12th June 2010) while cycling with my closest biking friends Gagan, Anand, Pankaj, Trilok, Ankur and Harish on a leisure ride to the Mulsi Lake, one question came to my mind, Why did I started cycling? Was it for fitness? Or was I going green? Was I saving money? Or was I trying to be kool?
The equanimous Mulsi lake,with its rejuvenating breeze, gliding my bike along its shore made me recall the true reason. The reason was like the dew on the grass but hidden behind the mist. The breeze from Mulsi cleared the mist. The reason was simple, I cycle just because I love cycling. There’s no other reason. And I realized there can’t be any other reason.
The Mulsi lake’s depth triggered my thoughts, they flew back; I recalled a friend of mine who once said “I do everything for my own happiness”. A smile came to my face; can anyone truly from the depths of their heart say that they do something for someone else’s happiness? Sacrifice is a nice word, we mistake it as an act done for someone else’s happiness. But is it really true? If a person sacrifices something, is there nothing he gains in return. May be the sacrifice is small for the long term gain, or may be it brings just love and fame. But if it doesn’t bring any happiness can it be called Sacrifice? Shouldn’t it be called bondage?
Bondage… There are different degrees of bondage and the worst kind is the bondage of the soul, the free soul. A man serving another without free will? Does any of them have a live soul inside? A soul held bondage to another? There’s a thin line between bond and bondage, one creates and another destroys.
After Lunch we all reposed in the woods along the bank of the lake. The whole lake side were full of our laughter; it was not a group of fellow cyclist from a cycling club, it was a group of friends, yes cycling brought us together but we are now a family, with each family member unique and best in his own way and we will still be a family even if we are worst in our own way; and I swear I had not laughed that hard since a decade. Soon we burnt all our calories shaking up the woods with our mirth.
And then fell upon peace again, Salis’ melodious Flute transfixed my thoughts back. I had never felt so pacified. But this time I thought of Pune’s cycling world. Where do I stand in this big cycling community of Pune? But before I could think of the answer, another question hit me… what’s community? I felt it’s a group of people with something in common, something that binds them together and of course they take pride in it. Cycling binds the cycling community in Pune, that’s what we are together for, that binds us together.
But something inside me said ‘Bani, are you right? Are you really part of this community?’
A voice within me replied, ‘No! You can’t be bound to any community, You never cycled for the community, you always cycled because you loved cycling! Tomorrow if there’s no community, will you stop cycling? No, you won’t!”
It was late evening, we friends had parted at Chandni Chowk, I was speeding home, and then I skid. I got up as if nothing had happened, went home, took a shower and cleaned the golden mud from my skin. I called father and told about the tailoring I got on the chin. He commanded, “It’s the second time you crashed, you won’t touch that Merida again!”
I said, “Yes!” in an apathetic tone, because I knew my pursuit of happiness is never gonna stop!
In Pursuit of Happiness
Bani
Today(12th June 2010) while cycling with my closest biking friends Gagan, Anand, Pankaj, Trilok, Ankur and Harish on a leisure ride to the Mulsi Lake, one question came to my mind, Why did I started cycling? Was it for fitness? Or was I going green? Was I saving money? Or was I trying to be kool?
The equanimous Mulsi lake,with its rejuvenating breeze, gliding my bike along its shore made me recall the true reason. The reason was like the dew on the grass but hidden behind the mist. The breeze from Mulsi cleared the mist. The reason was simple, I cycle just because I love cycling. There’s no other reason. And I realized there can’t be any other reason.
The Mulsi lake’s depth triggered my thoughts, they flew back; I recalled a friend of mine who once said “I do everything for my own happiness”. A smile came to my face; can anyone truly from the depths of their heart say that they do something for someone else’s happiness? Sacrifice is a nice word, we mistake it as an act done for someone else’s happiness. But is it really true? If a person sacrifices something, is there nothing he gains in return. May be the sacrifice is small for the long term gain, or may be it brings just love and fame. But if it doesn’t bring any happiness can it be called Sacrifice? Shouldn’t it be called bondage?
Bondage… There are different degrees of bondage and the worst kind is the bondage of the soul, the free soul. A man serving another without free will? Does any of them have a live soul inside? A soul held bondage to another? There’s a thin line between bond and bondage, one creates and another destroys.
After Lunch we all reposed in the woods along the bank of the lake. The whole lake side were full of our laughter; it was not a group of fellow cyclist from a cycling club, it was a group of friends, yes cycling brought us together but we are now a family, with each family member unique and best in his own way and we will still be a family even if we are worst in our own way; and I swear I had not laughed that hard since a decade. Soon we burnt all our calories shaking up the woods with our mirth.
And then fell upon peace again, Salis’ melodious Flute transfixed my thoughts back. I had never felt so pacified. But this time I thought of Pune’s cycling world. Where do I stand in this big cycling community of Pune? But before I could think of the answer, another question hit me… what’s community? I felt it’s a group of people with something in common, something that binds them together and of course they take pride in it. Cycling binds the cycling community in Pune, that’s what we are together for, that binds us together.
But something inside me said ‘Bani, are you right? Are you really part of this community?’
A voice within me replied, ‘No! You can’t be bound to any community, You never cycled for the community, you always cycled because you loved cycling! Tomorrow if there’s no community, will you stop cycling? No, you won’t!”
It was late evening, we friends had parted at Chandni Chowk, I was speeding home, and then I skid. I got up as if nothing had happened, went home, took a shower and cleaned the golden mud from my skin. I called father and told about the tailoring I got on the chin. He commanded, “It’s the second time you crashed, you won’t touch that Merida again!”
I said, “Yes!” in an apathetic tone, because I knew my pursuit of happiness is never gonna stop!
In Pursuit of Happiness
Bani
Very humble and from heart!!!
ReplyDeleteNice bani..wish everyone could hear the voice of heart...Its very difficlt man...
and its damn difficult in this chaos of modern world with its high competitive demand..